WWE Monday Night Raw: 1/31/2022

It’s the Raw after the Royal Rumble payperview and after seeing the landscape of the WWE change in the matter of seconds, we’re officially on the road to the Elimination Chamber show that will be held at Saudi Arabia. With Brock Lesnar and Ronda Rousey being the winners of their respected Royal Rumble matches, it’s time to see how their roads to WrestleMania would look like! And speaking of Brock…

Segment 1: Elimination Chamber Qualifiers.

We open off the show with the new WWE champion, Bobby Lashley! After his stellar performance at the Royal Rumble against Lesnar, the Almighty’s ready for his first championship defense by heading to Saudi Arabia and compete inside the Elimination Chamber. With AJ Styles versus Rey Mysterio and Kevin Owens versus Austin Theory in qualifying matches, of course it would’ve been fitting to add someone automatically to the match; and who better to add to the Elimination Chamber than the former champion, Brock Lesnar. Lesnar confronted Lashley, ready for a fight in his ring gear but unfortunately Lashley didn’t want to grant the Beast a rematch. However, general manager Adam Pearce made the decision to have Lesnar in the match since he was the former champion. Already, this match has become stacked!

Match 1: Nikki ASH vs Rhea Ripley. (Rating: 2/5)

For this being their first official match against each other, this was pretty okay. With them spending a year together as a tag team, the chemistry between Nikki and Rhea against each other also works really well. Sadly, this match really didn’t last as long as it should’ve after Rhea won the match via pinfall with her Riptide finisher. The slow build to this feud will indeed get better as the weeks progress, and I hope somehow it takes as ruthless and as amazing as Ripley to push Nikki to her absolute best and have her showcase her abilities a lot more. The last time Cross really gave it her all was during her amazing feud with Asuka back in NXT.

Match 2: Elimination Chamber Qualifying Match; Riddle vs Otis. (Rating: 3.5/5)

Prior to this match being announced on the fly, Riddle and Chad Gable had a segment with each other to see who would win a 50-lap scooter race. Unfortunately Gable won via Otis ambushing Riddle near the finish lap, but Adam Pearce came out and made the match between the Original Bro and the Tree-trunk official and not only that, but adding the stipulation that who ever won would join Lesnar and Lashley at the Elimination Chamber match for the WWE championship. This match was really great, especially considering the fact that Otis and Riddle have already had encounters with one another in tag matches between RK-Bro and Alpha Academy. This fun match was won by Matt Riddle after hitting a really beautiful corkscrew dive on the behemoth, not only being added to the Elimination Chamber match but finally getting an opportunity to wrestle for a shot for the WWE championship against two of the biggest beasts that WWE has currently.

Match 3: Elimination Chamber Qualifier Match; Kevin Owens vs Austin Theory. (Rating: 4/5)

And once again we get another really great Chamber qualifier match between Owens and Theory! Prior to this match on the KO Show, it was revealed that not only will it be Brock Lesnar, Bobby Lashley and now Riddle but also Seth Rollins was added to the mix because of how the end result of his match with Roman went at Saturday’s payperview. With the momentum that Theory has had throughout these past couple of months by competing in already high caliber matches with some of the best wrestlers on the Raw roster, this was the perfect opportunity to have Theory pick up the win against another former world champion and that was what exactly happened! Austin picked up a clean victory against Owens and secured his spot to the Elimination Chamber with the biggest shot of his young career!

Match 4: Final Elimination Chamber Qualifier; AJ Styles vs Rey Mysterio. (Rating: 4.75/5)

No pun intended, this was a phenomenal match between these two bonafide future Hall of Fame wrestlers. AJ and Rey have faced each other multiple times in the past, primarily during the era in which WWE had their shows taking place at the Thunderdome for the United States championship. Back and forth both men went, countering each other’s moves and nearly putting the other away. This was won by Styles after countering a West Coast Pop into a Styles Clash for the pinfall victory; making AJ the final participant in the Elimination Chamber match with the likes of Austin Theory, Bobby Lashley, Brock Lesnar, Matt Riddle and Seth Rollins. As far as free tv matches go, this already goes down as the best WWE match of the year!

Final Segment: “You’ll find out my answer on Friday.”

Ronda Rousey is officially back on WWE television after making her shocking return at Saturday’s Royal Rumble payperview during the women’s Rumble match and winning the event, punching her ticket to WrestleMania. But the question is who she would face as she has history with both Becky and Charlotte and before Rousey was at least going to tease which champion she would face, out comes Becky Lynch. These two haven’t been together in a ring since the historic winner takes all main event match at WrestleMania back in 2019 when Lynch became Becky Two Belts by pinning Rousey so this already made the hype real. Before Lynch could get too confident however, with a simple judo throw by Rousey, we have to wait until Friday to see what decision the Baddest Woman On the Planet would make. You’d think that the show immediately ended after Rousey left the ring, out comes to a real surprise WWE Hall of Famer Lita! After failing to win the Royal Rumble match, Lita decides to throw a challenge to Big Time Becks for the Elimination Chamber payperview for the Raw Women’s title and Lynch accepts! This really came out of nowhere and it was such an awesome way to end an already great episode of Raw. Hope the momentum carries on for SmackDown this week!

Final rating: 4/5